Is It Possible for a Pastry Chef to Stop Being Sweet?

Question

Hi, I have quite a complex problem. I’m a pastry chef. Of late, I have gradually given up all my unhealthy vices. Drinking, smoking, caffeine, not exercising… and just one, the worst one, remains. Sugar.

I tried to give up yesterday and I was a mess. Imagine giving up smoking when your occupation involves rolling cigarettes, lighting them, and handing them to people. I make desserts, ice creams, cakes, gels and cut up a lot of fruit. I use about 20kg of sugar a week. Every time I make something, I HAVE to taste it. But its gotten a little out of control, and every time I put a quenelle of ice cream on a plate I lick the spoon. I have no control over what I eat for dinner as we are given something made from leftovers, although savoury, almost always contains some sugar.

I know I am making up some excuses, but damn this is hard. Can you offer any advice? (I know you’re going to tell me to quit my job)

Thanks, Lani

Answer

Hi Lani, tricky situation you’re in! From what I can tell, you’re not completely sold on giving up sugar altogether, which is a good thing since consuming at least a little bit of sugar is required by your job. What you need are parameters.

Stop Being Sweet doesn’t mean quitting all sugars forever, starting right now. It’s about figuring out what’s workable for you. Eating well is a skill that takes time and practice.

There might be some sweet things at work you can sample that won’t make you want more and more. You must identify which foods trigger your sweet desires so you can avoid those foods. Having the awareness is key. The only way to know which foods you can and can’t sample is by experience. You probably already have a good idea as to what you are better off avoiding.

Maybe for every sweet thing you eat on the job, balance it with something healthy outside of work such as a bike ride, a long walk, or a trip to the gym.

You could bring your own food to work. Crazy, right? You work for a place that provides food. Sampling some of that food is part of the work day. How’s it going to look if you show up with food from home? Hmmm… you might not have to quit because they will fire you for embarrassing them!

Maybe you can propose an initiative to lower the amounts of sugar in the foods you’re making. This is a value added selling point because anyone who has access to the news should have heard about the dangers of chronic sugar consumption. Reducing the amounts of sugar you use could open up new avenues for the business and for your career. If that doesn’t work…

I’d never tell you to quit your job, but perhaps consider starting your own business making low or no sugar pastries. You’d be doing something personal, professional, and positive. Good luck!

Michelle Asks About OCD and Sugar

Questions

1. Do you use substitutes?

2. Did going sugar free help your OCD?

3. How long after going sugar free did you notice results?

Answers

1. I do not use sugar substitutes. I’ve tried a variety of artificially sweetened foods (including sugar free Oreos) but they do not work for me. Many sugar substitutes are problematic in that they give you gas, make you feel weird, or are associated with negative health risks.

2. Going sugar free helps with OCD, yes. It’s very easy to obsess on sweets and so cutting them out means you remove a large downward-spiraling cyclical pattern from your life. Read this interview with Bill Brenner. He’s written extensively about sugar and OCD.

3. I noticed changes in my mind and body after about three weeks to one month of not eating sweets. It took one whole year before I really started to feel comfortable as a sugar-free person.

How to Stop Eating Sugar at Work and at Night?

Question

Joseph asked, “How can I stop eating sugar and work at night?”

Answer

Avoiding sweets at work and at home covers some of the most vulnerable areas in your life. The answer is simple, just stop! Check out the following blog posts:

• 10 Tips for Avoiding Sugar at the Office
• Should You Keep Sweets At Home?

Remember, the Temptation Never Ends! You must learn to understand the events and influences that lead you to want to eat sweets. There’s always a time or place where you will be weak—birthday parties, weddings, stressful days, road trips, vacations—situations that you will have to navigate no matter what.

The Stop Being Sweet ebook explains step-by-step how to reduce or remove added sugars from your diet but in the end only you can stop being sweet. You are always the answer.

Eat Fruit on an Empty Stomach?

Question

Luis asked, “How do you feel about consuming fresh fruits on only an empty stomach? Are these sugars still detrimental?”

Answer

An email circulates from time-to-time that scares people about eating fruit. See the Snopes.com article.

To Stop Being Sweet means that you get your sugar intake under control and put your health first. The way to do that is different for different people. I still eat fruit. Yes, it contains fructose (which some say is the problem) but it also contains fiber. Some say fruit is bad. Some love it. Different research says different things. For me, fruit is okay if I don’t eat too much of it. For others, fruit leads to bingeing.

It really depends on your individual goals. Why are you avoiding sweets? Is it because you’re diabetic? Overweight? Finding that you have trouble regulating how much sugar you eat? Those are all different reasons and fruit will play a different role in each answer.

If you have no health concerns and are simply trying to cut back on sugar, then experiment. See how it makes you feel and decide from your experience. Good luck!

Does Your eBook Makes Sense for Me?

Questions

1) I want to create a personalized paradigm committed to individualized, non-histrionic/judgmental health. Do you think your ebook makes sense for me?

2) What is your advice on finding a support system? I have the support of my domestic partner so perhaps that will be enough? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks,
Katie

Answers

1. Yes. A “personalized paradigm committed to individualized, non-histrionic/judgmental health” (as you describe) was what I aimed for when writing the ebook. I liken the whole process to traveling across America. Want to go from one coast to the other? I did it and can give you directions but you’ll have to get there on your own. Although our paths will be different, we can both end up in the same or a similar place.

While I do joke about sugar being a mind-numbing poison that is pushed upon us by evil people, that’s not What It Means to Stop Being Sweet.

2. As for a support system, if your domestic partner is on board then you’re golden! Also, I recently added an online forum to this website so that we can all communicate with each other and hopefully find support where there might otherwise be none. There are also other websites, forums, books, and paid programs out there. All of these can be wonderful tools for a person who has accepted personal choice and responsibility. I hope they are helpful for you.

How Do You Eat Sugar One Day and Not the Next?

Question

How do you have sugar one day (on one of your four days a year, for example) and not have it turn into two days, and then three, and so on. How do you have it.. then not have it? I went with out sugar one time for about a year and a half, then at a surprise birthday party for me I succumbed to peer pressure and had a piece of birthday cake (“ONE PIECE WON’T HURT YOU!”) and that was the beginning of the end.

Thanks,
Jill

Answer

I choose to do it. Halloween and my birthday are days where I want to eat sweets. Doing so makes it easier for me to participate with the activities of those days. I failed 1,000 times before getting to the point where I could make it a year without sugar. Having the 4-day window where I choose to eat whatever I want came as a result of much experimentation. I had gone weeks, months, and finally a year before settling in on those 4 days.

Once you’ve been off sugar long enough and then go back, you notice that it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. Knowing that helps to make eating sweets less attractive. After a year and a half sugar-free, you’re well aware of that.

In the end it’s really a matter of choice. Social pressures are a huge factor but people rarely hold us down and push cake into our mouths. That said, there is no doubt that someone would have been very hurt had you not eaten the sweets they made for your surprise birthday party. They’d have gotten over it though.

When you stop being sweet you get to know your boundaries. The only way that happens is to have them crossed and then feel upset about it afterwards. Then you think, “I’m not letting that happen again.”

What’s most frustrating about your story is that, had you not cracked under the pressure and given in, you would have flipped the script. Everyone would have been forced to give up the old, sweet you and accept the new, unsweet you. At your next birthday they’d know you mean business and people would be in awe of your ability to resist sugar. But you caved. And that’s perfectly okay. It was your choice. It has been your choice all along.

You chose to eat healthily for a year and a half and you chose to eat something sweet on your birthday. You’ve been in control all along and you still are, right now. Choose wisely!

Do You Eat Sugar When You Eat Out?

Question

How do you handle the “hidden” sugars that are sometimes added to savory sauces in dishes you may order when you eat out? Or do you not eat out?

Answer

Carefully. Gwenn and I don’t eat out much. When we do, we try to go to a place that we have tried and are familiar with. Not only are restaurant foods sweet, they’re also loaded with salt. Here’s how I handle it.

Drinking

I always drink water. I gave up soda years before I gave up sugar. I don’t drink alcohol. Restaurant food is very salty, especially at a place that serves beer like a brew pub. At least one glass of water is necessary to make it through a meal in a place like that.

Meat

Meat often has added sugars. Seasoning is sweetening in many cases. Bacon has sugar in it. Hot dogs have sugar in them. Not to mention your average hamburger patty gets washing in ammonia. As a result of avoiding sugar, I learned about where my food comes from and chose to become vegetarian. That quickly limits my menu options.

Comfort and Ketchup

I like comfort food. Here in Portland, veggie burgers are easy to come by (there’s often at least one vegetarian option on the menu). However, that doesn’t guarantee that I won’t be eating added sugars. In fact, the bun will most definitely have sugar and french fries are, well, french fries. Still, I’ll order a veggie burger and fries.

Lately I’ll have some ketchup when I’m out but we don’t keep ketchup at home. Portland’s Little Big Burger offers ketchup made with honey, most places do not. Heinz changed their sweetener in ketchup from High Fructose Corn Syrup to plain old sugar, but many diners and restaurants use generic ketchup in Heinz bottles!

Sugar Free?

Am I sugar-free if I still eat ketchup? Yes and no. I don’t eat dessert. I don’t drink soda. I don’t buy snack food. I avoid the sit down restaurants that are a just cut above fast food. I certainly avoid my trigger foods. But there are a few things that I allow myself to eat (like ketchup, veggie burger, fries) that certainly contain sugar of some kind. When joining a group of people to eat out, I just do my best.

For me, one of the main factors in choosing my food is if it’s processed or not. If so, how much? The biggest measure is how it makes me feel. Does it make me want to binge? I discovered what I could or couldn’t eat by trying and seeing what happened. If I ate ice cream one day, I’d need it the next and by the end of the week I’d be eating nothing else, so I absolutely avoid it.

Long Story Short

If I eat out I do so consciously and conservatively. In the past few months I’ve had comfort food a couple of times and felt lousy afterwards. I am now revamping my diet and moving more of my ‘borderline replacement foods’ to my ‘avoid’ list.

In the end, you define your own parameters about what you are willing to eat and when. That’s what it means to Stop Being Sweet. It is not all or nothing. It might take you several years to alter the habits developed over a lifetime of eating carbs and sugar. I’m not completely ready to avoid bread but I’m getting close.

You can do what you want anywhere you go but expect that it’ll always be hard to avoid sugar when you’re away from home.

How to Quit Sugar with Kids?

Question

I want to quit sugar but it’s in everything! How does one who works and has kids really quit sugar?

Answer

I think knowledge and education is key. That and a positive role model. However, I don’t have kids and so I don’t really know.

If you have children, please comment!

I’ve heard parents say that if they lay off the candy their children tend to do the same. Parents also say that restricting kids from sweets will make them want it more. I’ve also heard stories from adults whose parents forbade them from eating sugar when they were young, which led them to binge on sweets at every chance.

Maybe kids are just like adults. You can’t control them but you can influence them through leading by example.